What is a sloth?

Answers

Sloth are a family of animals covering six species, characterized their extremely slow movements. They are found in the rainforests of Central and South America and are arboreal animals, using incredible strength to tightly grip tree branches. Their diet is mostly consisted of leaves, which provide little nutrition. to adapt to this, sloths have very low metabolism rates, which gives them their slow, lazy appearance. They can live up to 30 years.

Sloths are the world’s slowest moving mammals. A defining characteristic of the sloth is the number of claws they have on each front foot; there are either two-toed sloths or three-toed sloths. Sloths live almost entirely in treetops and can sleep between 15-20 hours every day. They are herbivores and get almost all of their water from juicy plants. Sloths are approximately 23 inches long and weigh an average of 8.75 pounds. Sloths are native to the rainforests of Central and South America.

The sloth is the world’s slowest mammal, so slow that algae grows on its furry coat. Sloths are usually herbivores, eating leaves, fruits and shoots. They are also clumsy on land, but surprisingly good swimmers. More information can be found at the website provided.

Some species of sloth are endangered. The Maned Three-Toed Sloth is considered endangered and the Pygmy Three-Toed Sloth is considered critically endangered. This could worsen with the increasing deforestation of sloth habitat.